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A Fairfield County felon is heading back to prison after admitting to illegally possessing a weapon for the fourth time.

Bridgeport resident Federico “Rico” Cannon, 36, has been sentenced to 84 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty in district court to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, following an incident last year when he was busted with a semiautomatic handgun.

On June 26 last year, Cannon was released from federal prison following a 70-month sentence for the same charge. On July 31, while on supervised release, investigators in Bridgeport received information that Cannon was again illegally in possession of a gun and was a passenger in a car near the Trumbull Gardens housing complex in Bridgeport.

Officers proceeded to track down the vehicle and conducted a traffic stop. When Cannon was removed from the vehicle, they found a 9mm semi-automatic SAR B6P handgun under the passenger seat where Cannon had been sitting, loaded with 16 bullets.

Cannon was arrested at the scene and has been in custody since. He faced up to 10 years in prison on the weapons charge and three additional years for violating the conditions of his supervised release.

This marks Cannon’s third federal conviction for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, according to John Durham, the United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

In October 2004, Cannon was busted with three others while driving on I-95 between Norwalk and Bridgeport after a physical encounter broke out between them and a second car. During that incident, multiple gunshots were fired, and a gun was later found under the seat Cannon had been sitting.

In February 2012, Cannon was a passenger in a vehicle that was stopped by Bridgeport Police on Caroline Street. Cannon initially exited the vehicle and attempted to walk away, but officers ordered him back to the car, where they found a pistol on the floor of the backseat where Cannon had been sitting.

Durham said that Cannon also has a conviction stemming from a traffic stop in Bridgeport in June 1999, when he was found in possession of a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun